Maternal Mortality

The President of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Prof. Oluwarotimi Akinola, Sunday said Nigeria is occupying a pathetic position in the number of women that die during child birth, attributing the problem to dearth of skilled birth attendants.

Speaking during an interview with journalists in Sokoto, Akinola noted with deep concern the high rate of maternal deaths in the country, with Nigeria contributing 14 per cent to all the women that die in the world.

It was about midday in the sleepy town called Sogunro Community. Quietness pervaded the environment as if there were no human lives present. It was later discovered that most of the residents had either gone to their offices out of town or had gone about their business and trades. For the housewives or older residents; they were either resting in their own homes or just minding their individual business.

Ajayi Maimuna is a young mother in her 30’s. She became HIV positive after her first three children and it remains a puzzle to her how she contacted the disease.

Maimuna, who spoke to our correspondent at the Heart to Heart Centre,(H2H) of the Badagry General Hospital, Lagos State, said, “I was scared my son might contact the HIV virus and as a result of that, I only breastfed him for one month and three days.

Stakeholders have called for the embrace of child spacing, stressing that it curbs maternal and child mortalities as well as constitutes an essential part of wellbeing of families.

"In Nigeria, all Demographic Health Surveys, DHS, have shown this pattern. The 2013 DHS data showed that when births are spaced at least three years apart, the number of infants deaths fall dramatically, " Country Director, Health Policy Plus(HP+) Nigeria,Onoriode Ezire noted

The federal government of Nigeria is planning to carry out free surgery and laboratory services for all fistula patients in all Federal Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres in the country. This was announced by Nigeria’s health minister, Prof Isaac Adewole. The minister announced this while speaking at the National Stakeholders Meeting on Obstetric Fistula in Abuja.

Rebecca Ejifoma who carried out investigation on the use of family planning by Nigerian couples, reports that the overall acceptance is still below expectations in the country.

Ruth and her children

Nigeria has made progress in improving the use of contraceptives over the past decades. However, there is room for improvement even in the face of longstanding myths and misconceptions concerning their use.

Buji local government council in Jigawa state has constituted health advisory committee aimed at addressing health challenges and further prevent maternal and child mortality.

Chairman of the local government council, Alhaji Babangida Muhammed disclosed this Tuesday while receiving the executive members of the Buji local government Wards Development Committee (WDC) in his office.

Roughly every six minutes, a woman somewhere in the world bleeds to death in child birth. But a new medical trial shows that there is a way of combating the problem.

The trial has found that a simple drug called tranexamic acid, a blood clot stabiliser first discovered in Japan in the 1950s, could cut deaths from bleeding by a third if given to women within three hours.

Rural women in Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe and Zamfara states have taken a deeper sigh of relief following a decision by their respective governments to train 6,500 female health workers to man healthcare facilities in different communities across the five states.

The development was sequel to a partnership between Women for Health (W4H), a UKaid funded nongovernmental organization and the five state governments, Kano Chronicle, observed.